Food!
In other news, I had a pretty good week food-wise. I tried Cook's Illustrated Stovetop Roast Chicken recipe and it was very nice. It involves browning, then steaming, then browning the chicken parts, and I'm wondering if it would work as well on duck as it does on chicken. I may have to try it.
I went out for sushi tonight and treated myself to the steamed shrimp dumplings, which I keep meaning to try, but haven't gotten around to until tonight. They were very nice, but the dumplings and two sushi rolls were probably a little too much food. (Maybe the dumplings and two of the smaller, cheaper rolls would be better both quantity-wise and price-wise.)
Assuming the weather permits, I'm planning on going shopping in Des Moines tomorrow, and eat at either Fuddrucker's or Qdoba's -- two places that I like, but that we don't have in Ames.
I think this weekend I may try making Paneer Masala. I was going to try it with mild white "farmer's cheese" from Walmart on the grounds that there's no Indian grocery store in Ames, but it turns out there is indeed an Indian/Middle Eastern/Etc grocery store in Ames. (I actually still think there's probably no real difference between paneer and plain "farmer's cheese" -- I think "paneer" is just an Indian word for, well, farmer's cheese.)
I've also been drooling over Baking Illustrated, from the library. I really should start baking again. I haven't been doing it because cooking AND baking seems like so much work. I don't really need the junk food, but if I'm going to eat cookies I really might as well eat GOOD cookies instead of packaged storebought cookies. We'll see.
I went out for sushi tonight and treated myself to the steamed shrimp dumplings, which I keep meaning to try, but haven't gotten around to until tonight. They were very nice, but the dumplings and two sushi rolls were probably a little too much food. (Maybe the dumplings and two of the smaller, cheaper rolls would be better both quantity-wise and price-wise.)
Assuming the weather permits, I'm planning on going shopping in Des Moines tomorrow, and eat at either Fuddrucker's or Qdoba's -- two places that I like, but that we don't have in Ames.
I think this weekend I may try making Paneer Masala. I was going to try it with mild white "farmer's cheese" from Walmart on the grounds that there's no Indian grocery store in Ames, but it turns out there is indeed an Indian/Middle Eastern/Etc grocery store in Ames. (I actually still think there's probably no real difference between paneer and plain "farmer's cheese" -- I think "paneer" is just an Indian word for, well, farmer's cheese.)
I've also been drooling over Baking Illustrated, from the library. I really should start baking again. I haven't been doing it because cooking AND baking seems like so much work. I don't really need the junk food, but if I'm going to eat cookies I really might as well eat GOOD cookies instead of packaged storebought cookies. We'll see.